Stop treating Iran like an ally it is an enemy waiting to act
V LAST WEEK, former Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt voiced support for the extension of the UN arms embargo against Iran set to expire this October. As the clock ticks down to the expiration of sanctions prohibiting trading in conventional arms, Iran has already started its plans to re-enter the arms market. It has not hidden its intentions and Russia and China stand at-the-ready to help them. The troubling implications of a reinforced Iran not only for its neighbours but much further afield are absolutely clear. An opportunity now presents itself for Britain to demonstrate leadership and rally its allies as the October deadline approaches.
The danger is clear. The lifting of the arms embargo will lead to the rapid advancement of Iran’s longconstrained conventional weapons capabilities. It will lose no opportunity to improve its existing missile inventory including new land attack cruise missiles (LACMs), increasingly capable naval platforms with improved mines, more-advanced anti-ship ballistic missiles, and larger and more-sophisticated submarines. It will modernize its air defence forces with new air surveillance radars, surface-to-air missiles and reconnaissance systems as well as procuring fourth-generation fighter aircraft.
Iran’s destabilising behaviour in the Middle East and beyond is well-known. Reinforced, it will enhance its malign influence exponentially. In recent months, it attacked Saudi Arabia’s Abqaiq oil processing facility causing a spike in world oil prices; its Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) detonated limpet mines on Japanese and Norwegian-owned
ships in the Gulf of Oman; and, it deployed surface-to-air missiles to shoot down a U.S. unmanned aircraft operating over international waters in the Strait of Hormuz. The UK was attacked when the IRGC Navy seized the British-flagged, Swedish-owned Stena Impero tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, while Iran was the likely culprit of a cyber-attack on the UK in 2017. And in South America this week, Iran’s destabilising ambitions are clearly shown to be global.
While in the Middle East, an emboldened Iran will radically ratchet up its arming of terrorist organizations. Hezbollah, its proxy in Lebanon, will be better positioned to dominate a country already teetering on the brink of chaos and, in still-floundering Iraq, Iranian-backed militias will be further strengthened. Iranian reinforcement will fan the flames of war in long-suffering Yemen, the world’s most lethal conflict and it will continue to threaten its neighbours, Saudi
Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE. In a region seeking stability and peace, an Iran strengthened militarily will have ruinous repercussions.
All this says nothing about the catastrophic consequences for its own long-suffering population on which a newly strengthened regime will increase its stranglehold.
The UK’s global ambitions postBrexit must be met with actions that reflect our standing and core values. As a signatory to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, a long-standing ally to states threatened by Iranian aggression and as a staunch defender of global human rights, the United Kingdom has the responsibility to act to prevent Iran from ramping up its weapons programme. The UK government should work through international institutions and in partnership with our allies. Together, we can achieve greater security in the region by advocating an extension of UN conventional arms sanctions on Iran. The UK should further call on Iran to sign up to the UN Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) and other weapons trade conventions, as well as ensure UK exporters are not able to trade in arms or dual-use products with Iran under any circumstances. As the UK reconsiders its international sanctions architecture in advance of exiting the EU, it must erect its own watertight programme preventing arms trade with Iran.
The UK Government appears to be continuing to treat Iran as a friend in waiting, when its behaviour is more that of a menacing enemy poised for further action. The UK must spearhead international action to prevent Iran from further imperilling its neighbours and targets further afield, endangering UK allies and killing its own people.
Iran’s behaviour is that of a menacing enemy’
Leslie Turnberg is a Labour member of the House of Lords and Stuart Polak sits in the Lords as a Conservative Peer